By Paul R. La Monica

Crypto custody and wallet firm BitGo has been more like "Bit-No" since the company went public last month.

BitGo's stock has plunged more than 40% from its initial public offering price on Jan. 22, including a 6% slide Tuesday to just above $10 a share. The company couldn't have timed its debut any worse, as the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have come crashing down this year. It's a bear market for digital assets.

But Wall Street analysts who follow BitGo are still bullish on the company's future. In fact, the overwhelming majority of those who have recently launched coverage on the stock have done so with Buy ratings.

That shouldn't come as a major surprise of course. Analysts often issue positive coverage on new stocks, especially if their firms were involved as investment bankers that helped underwrite the deal.

Another recent IPO, construction equipment rental provider EquipmentShare.com, went public a day after BitGo and its stock has surged about 40% from its offering price. Seven of the eight analysts covering EquipmentShare.com just launched coverage with a Buy, including Goldman Sachs, one of the lead underwriters.

Still, the strong recommendations for BitGo are more telling, considering they are coming in the midst of another so-called crypto winter. The analysts covering BitGo might recognize that the stock looks like a compelling value, given the carnage in digital assets. Bitcoin prices have plummeted nearly 25% this year.

Citi analyst Peter Christiansen said in a report Monday that "BitGo is often described as a 'Picks and Shovels' play for crypto. Just like the exchanges, BitGo is an 'enabler' for the asset class."

In other words, BitGo provides custody and wallet services, storing digital assets securely through the use of private keys and hardware wallets similar to USB drives, for holders of Bitcoin and other cryptos. That should make BitGo a little less sensitive to the wild fluctuations in Bitcoin prices and changes in trading volumes.

Clearly, investors aren't buying that argument right now though. But that might be a mistake on their part.

Cantor's Brett Knoblauch said in a report Monday that the big slide in BitGo's stock "makes for an interesting setup, as we believe [BitGo's] business is not as correlated with prevailing digital asset prices or digital asset trading volumes" as some other crypto stocks that are more involved in Bitcoin trading.

Knoblauch added that investors should view BitGo "as an infrastructure and software layer to crypto." He thinks the company will benefit from the increased adoption of Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokens, and other digital assets by institutional investors and big corporations.

Both Citi and Cantor were underwriters for BitGo's IPO. Christiansen and Knoblacuh each have an $18 price target on the stock, which is nearly 80% above BitGo's current price. That makes them among the more bullish analysts following the stock. The consensus price target of $15.79 is more than 55% higher than where BitGo is now trading.

However, BitGo priced its IPO at $18 a share. So anyone who was able to snag shares at the IPO price (or bought shares the day they began trading and quickly rose to a peak of $24.50) will find little comfort from seeing the stock merely get back to $18.

It just goes to show that investors looking to buy IPOs are usually better off waiting for the dust to settle. New stocks often slide as investors wait for analyst coverage, a company's first earnings report, and for insiders to sell shares after lockup periods expire. BitGo, at a price around $10, is a much better bargain now than it was on its debut day.

Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com

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February 17, 2026 14:02 ET (19:02 GMT)

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